In late April 2023, Silas House was inducted as the thirty-first poet laureate of Kentucky. He is the New York Times bestselling author of seven novels including Clay’s Quilt, A Parchment of Leaves, The Coal Tattoo, Eli the Good, Same Sun Here, Southernmost, and his most recent, Lark Ascending (2022) (Read SLR review of this novel here). Lark Ascending was a Booklist Editors’ […]
“Blood Creek,” by Kimberly Collins
October 15, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Donna Meredith Kimberly Collins deftly plants the vicious Paint-Creek/Cabin Creek coal wars at the heart of the first installment in her Mingo Chronicles historical series. The novel is titled Blood Creek (Blue Mingo Press, 2019). While the West Virginia and Kentucky mine wars have been the focus of both fiction and nonfiction, Collins […]
Allen Mendenhall Interviews Kimmery Martin, Author of “The Queen of Hearts”
March 28, 2019 by Leave a Comment
AM: Thanks for the interview, Kimmery. You’re a medical doctor by training, correct? What kind of practice? And how did you manage to find the time to pen this novel, which, given its plot that involves medical school and residency, as well as its hospital settings, could only have been written, I think, by someone […]
“Trampoline: An Illustrated Novel,” by Robert Gipe
October 25, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Phyllis Wilson Moore Back in 2015 I received an advanced copy of Robert Gipe’s novel Trampoline and proceeded to read it. The author, Robert Gipe, was new to me and the first-person story featured some of his line drawings scattered in appropriate places. They were different. I’m not a fan of illustrations in […]
“The Sisters of Glass Ferry,” by Kim Michele Richardson
July 26, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Philip K. Jason This spellbinding new novel by the author of Liar’s Bench and GodPretty in the Tobacco Field powerfully blends teenage angst, a rich portrait of the American South, the blessings and curses of twinship, and the inevitably destructive nature of secrets. Ms. Richardson provides rich dosses of sensory imagery, emotional stress, […]
“GodPretty in the Tobacco Field,” by Kim Michele Richardson
April 11, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Philip K. Jason Like its predecessor Liar’s Bench, GodPretty in the Tobacco Field is a powerful coming-of-age story complicated by lingering racial prejudice. The town of Nameless, Kentucky is a place where everyone suffers under the heel of grinding poverty, poor education, and images of a ruthless, punishing God from whom family elders […]